Jail for man who had sex with 13-year-old girlfriend

SINGAPORE — When Ong Zhi Kai was 19 years old, he started dating a 13-year-old girl whom he met online.

She initially told him she was 16, and they had sex on multiple occasions at staircase landings and in her home. 

One day, however, she asked to break up with him as she was tired of meeting him just for sex without going on proper dates.

Thinking she was sleeping with another man, Ong grew incensed and tried to have sex with her while she struggled. But he was unable to sustain an erection and stopped after she accidentally hit her head on her wardrobe.

The unemployed Singaporean, who is now 23 years old, was sentenced to three years and one month behind bars on Friday (Nov 8) in a district court. His ex-girlfriend, who is now 17, cannot be named due to a court gag order to protect her identity.

Ong pleaded guilty to six charges of sexual penetration and attempted sexual penetration of a minor, with another 10 such charges taken into consideration for sentencing.

THE RELATIONSHIP

The court heard that they got to know each other on Omegle, an online chat site, in early 2016. They moved their conversations to WhatsApp later, chatting about topics that included sex.

They began dating about two weeks later and had sex at the staircase landing of her Housing and Development Board block of flats during their first meeting. He did not wear a condom, and she was a virgin at the time.

After that, the couple met another five times at her home every one to two weeks. They "engaged in consensual sexual acts" each time, Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Hsiao Tien told the court.

He did not verify her claims that she was 16, even when a family friend told him she was 15-years-old. In reality, she was only 13.

On their sixth and last meet-up, Ong went over to her home to discuss their relationship, as she had asked to break up with him over WhatsApp.

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When he went into her room, he saw a white stain on her shirt that he thought was semen. He confronted her and saw red when she denied that it was semen.

He removed his pants and underwear and hugged her tightly, but she pushed him away when he said he wanted to have sex with her. She held onto her own pants when he tried to pull them down.

At this point, he pushed her towards the bed. As they struggled on the bed, he managed to remove her pants and underwear, but he could not do anything else as she was resisting him.

Throughout this, she told him to stop and hit him in the face in a bid to get him to let her go.

When she accidentally hit her head on the wardrobe, he stopped, stood up and put on his clothes again, then apologised and left. They have not contacted each other since then.

For sexual penetration of a minor under 14, Ong could have been jailed for up to 20 years, fined or caned.